“It is impossible to produce superior results unless you do something different.”
– John Templeton
Recruiting can be a tough job.
A hiring manager has to be everything at once – a multi-tasker, a planner, a *people* person, a problem-solver, and most importantly, an innovator!
What’s more? The labor market, according to 62% of employers, is candidate-driven.
As difficult as it is to hire the best candidates in the present economy, working smart can help you attract top talent a lot faster while also reducing your time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.
Below, we highlight a few recruiting ideas outside the box that can help you do just that!
1) Expand Your Reach on Niche Candidate Networks
The first and most important recruitment strategy on our list is – expanding your reach on niche candidate networks.
Niche job boards that are specific to your industry can not only help you in filling a position quickly, but they can also help you get in touch with good passive candidates who you can then attract toward your company with various marketing techniques.
One recent article on ICIMS’ website titled ‘The Power of Niche Job Boards’ goes on to explain why niche job boards are one of the best options around for recruiters trying to find top talent:
“Niche job boards are generally smaller job boards that are location or industry focused. Many niche job boards are sponsored and/or maintained by industry leading professional associations. Recruiters report improved quality of candidates because candidates belonging to and seeking jobs through a professional association are often substantially more focused on career, skill, and trade development.”
Some of the most visible benefits of expanding your reach on niche candidate networks are:
- Target the right candidate – Placing your advertisements on a general job board may mean that thousands of job seekers see it without anything positive happening for you, but this may be thousands of the wrong kind of candidate. With a niche network you can rest assured that the right candidates are viewing your vacancy.
- Enhanced quality – Sometimes with a more niche platform, the quantity you attract may not be as high as a more generalized website. However, the quality of applicants is far greater. Typical job boards often result in applications from unqualified and inexperienced individuals.
- Higher cost-effectiveness – Niche candidate networks get you more value for the money you invest to fuel your hiring strategy as the right people are seeing your openings, meaning you can cut back on unnecessary costs.
2) Film a Recruitment Video
Bringing the power of digital innovation into your hiring strategy can be an excellent way to attract candidates’ attention and show them how tech savvy your organization is in the process of doing so.
And you know what’s the best way to do that?
Attract them through visual simulation!
In 2020, 96% of consumers increased their online video consumption, and 9 out of 10 viewers said that they wanted to see more videos from brands and businesses. In fact, as of 2022, an average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos.
Leverage these numbers to your advantage – make a video talking about your new job openings, then share it across your company’s social channels and website.
What you’re essentially doing by leveraging the video format is that you’re showcasing your company culture in a way that sparks intrigue among potential hires while also showing them that your organization is embracing the changes brought by this digital age we’re living in.
Don’t believe it?
Jeanette Leeds, Talent Acquisition expert and Managing Director at Hourly by AMS, in one of her 2018 articles posted on LinkedIn, writes about how candidates are looking for a tech savvy recruitment experience in today’s times:
“Millennials will make up 50% of the global workforce by 2020, according to a 2016 PWC study. To reach this growing candidate demographic and the other incoming generation, Generation Z, recruiting professionals must understand precisely how these generations are searching for jobs. Aged 22 to 37, millennials are inherently tech-savvy and anticipate an amazing candidate experience that’s as simple as their consumer-focused experiences are.”
Having a video recruitment strategy will put you in a better position than the majority of your counterparts.
Some of the best practices you can follow when filming videos about your open positions are:
- Keep it as short and precise as possible. You only get a few seconds to attract a candidate’s attention. And while video will help you attract longer attention spans than written media, you need to make sure that you’re only adding things that are necessary to it. Don’t make 10-12 min long videos for the sake of adding everything.
- Try asking your current employees to submit testimonials about their experience at the company and include those within the video. It’ll act as social proof and spark intrigue about your company within the candidates who see it.
- Get in touch with a professional and take all video marketing best practices into consideration when you finally decide to post the video on your company’s social media channels.
3) Make Your Company Stand Out on Non-Traditional Media Platforms
Lastly, if you want to truly stand out with your recruitment strategy and get ahead of your industry counterparts, you have to look for and expand reach on avenues where not many people are. This simply means you have to include non-traditional media platforms within your hiring model.
One best practice would be to keep an eye out on social media trends that you could leverage to market your open positions, or even your company in general.
An excellent example of a company that’s already doing this and seeing success would be that of McDonald’s.
The fast food giant started using Snapchat to recruit employees at it’s Canada outlets in early 2015. Their campaign was named Snaplications, and it allowed people who are willing to work for the company to upload a 30-second video resume that can be shared on their hiring portal.
Stephanie Hardman, the Chief People Officer at McDonald’s Canada, in a recent interview said:
“We wanted to offer a convenient and flexible application process to attract more young people to our one-day virtual hiring event. The company has chosen Snapchat because in Canada, where Snapchat enjoys 12 million people who use it on a daily basis, more than 80% of those users are millennials.”
Another company that is effectively using non-traditional social platforms to attract candidates would be UPS.
According to research, there are more than 8 billion views of videos on Facebook every single day on average. This fact has not been lost on UPS; it uses videos for employees to talk about why they love working at UPS.
Matt Levy, UPS’s company Director of Talent acquisition, says:
“Social media is more than just job postings and our social media includes LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. It’s a way to tell our story using videos and text. You don’t just advertise your openings on social media. You create a story around them to attract the right people”
When wanting to expand their reach on non-traditional media platforms, it is important to identify what’s working best for your company.
You can begin by:
- Identifying what the demographics of the majority of your target candidate group are (age, skills, interests)
- Trying to explore different trends and finding platforms where your target candidates hang out most
- Designing a hiring campaign keeping in mind the pain points and needs of your ideal recruit
- Experimenting with different platforms and finding the mix that works for you best
Remember, hiring isn’t a one-time process, it’s a commitment that goes beyond attracting and employing people. Just as your business model develops, your hiring strategy is going to change too. Keep an open mind and don’t be scared to pivot as often as needed.
To learn more about how you can find the best talent within your industry within a comparatively shorter period of time, get in touch with us at BenchPoint – the one-stop solution for all your recruiting needs.